McDonald’s to Partner With IBM to Create Artificial Intelligence Technology to Automate its Drive-Thru Lines

McDonald’s announced Wednesday its strategic alliance with IBM to create artificial intelligence technologies that will assist the fast-food company in automating its drive-thru lines.

McD Tech Labs, which was originally known as Apprente before McDonald’s bought the tech startup in 2019, will be acquired by IBM as part of the agreement.

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said during an earnings call, “In my mind, IBM is the ideal partner for McDonald’s given their expertise in building AI-powered customer care solutions and voice recognition.”

To understand drive-thru requests, the Apprente technology utilizes artificial intelligence. McDonald’s put the technology to the test in a few Chicago locations this summer. Customers and staff reaped “substantial benefits” from the test, said Kempczinski.

Kempczinski revealed McDonald’s tech acquisition strategy in June, at the same conference where he revealed the Chicago test.

He said, “If we do acquisitions, it will be for a short period of time, bring it in-house, jumpstart it, turbo it and then spin it back out and find a partner that will work and scale it for us.”

Only about 100 employees will leave McDonald’s to work for IBM, according to CFO Kevin Ozan.

He said, “It isn’t a big financial statement impact, plus or minus, I’ll say, going forward from that.”

McDonald’s stock jumped 2% in premarket trade on Wednesday after the firm announced its third-quarter earnings. As its overseas markets recovered, the fast-food chain’s profitability and revenue surpassed expectations.